Souhegan quarterback Michael Fiengo (9) celebrates a touchdown with teammate Judson Harris during the Sabes' 47-14 Division II semifinal win over Pelham in Amherst. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

AMHERST – Yes, the Souhegan High School football team looked in control of things, up 27-7 on No. 4 Pelham at halftime of Saturday’s Divsion II semifinal at Calvetti Field.

But then, well, the Sabers took that control to another level.

How about 20 points in the first 43 seconds of the second half en route to a 47-14 win?

Huh? How was that possible? An 85-yard kickoff return by Brody Smith to start the half, then recoveries of hard Andrew Healey on-side kicks that deflected off Python players, recovered by kids in black and gold uniforms. Off those turnovers, Souhegan QB Michael Fiengo threw TD tosses of 27 yards to Smith and 42 yards to Ryland Raudelunas, both players completely alone in the secondary.

As a result of their sudden impact scoring, the No. 1, 11-0 defending champion Sabers will take on No. 2 Trinity of Manchester in next Saturday’s Division II title game at Pinkerton Academy.

Incredible. Had Sabers coach Robin Bowkett ever seen that before?

“No,” he said after a long pause. “I’m so proud of how our guys took advantage of their opportunities, to get the ball back on special teams, that’s a good time. And we felt we had to go for the jugular there on the first one and we got it to 47; it was ‘Let’s do it again. Let’s end this and be done with it.'” And the kids executed great. They did a great job.”

Pythons coach Jason Riley was dumbfounded.

“No words,” he said. “Still kind of trying to process that, keep the kids together, the coaching staff together at that point. The wheels fell off. There’s no other way to explain it or process that one.”

Actually, the Sabers used kicker Andrew Healey’s hard on-sides foot earlier in the game to increase their lead to 21-0 before the end of the first quarter. They scored on their first possession, a 10-play, 64-yard drive with Fiengo rushing it in from 39 yards out. After Pelham botched a punt thanks to Smith’s heavy rush, the Sabers got the ball on the Python 13 and took two plays to score, a 2-yard Fiengo flip to Raudelunas. Then, after recovering Healey’s on-side kick off a Python, Fiengo found Smith on a 40-yard pass play and it was 21-0 with 1:30 left in the opening period.

“I think it starts with defense,” Bowkett said. “We got a big fourth down stop there, that kind of juices everybody. I think that if you have a really good defense, you get stops, I don’t know, it juices up the whole team. They made us earn it that first drive, we punched it in, got things rolling from there, and didn’t look back.”

“If we just play our brand of football, I don’t think anyone can stop us,” said Fiengo, who was 10-of 12 for 165 yards and four TDs, plus rushed for 76 yards and a score.

Souhegan made it 27-0 after a Pelham drive stalled at the Saber 34. Eleven plays later Raudelunas ran it in from 2 yards out for the second of his three TDs with 3:23 left in the half (kick failed).

Pelham managed to get their lone TD of the half on QB Keven Hardy’s 16-yard run with 1:18 left in the half. Despite being outgained 232-99 in the first 24 minutes, the Pythons (8-3) thought they had some momentum, but the Saber explosion at the start of the second half changed all that. Pelham, which didn’t record a first down rushing until late in the fourth quarter with Souhegan’s subs in, got one more score, a Hardy 15-yard TD pass to Noah Johnson with 11:18 left and the game in running time.

Souhegan’s Ryland Raudelunas leads a swarm of Sabers to smother Pelham back Luke Draper during Saturday’s 47-14 Division II semifinal win in Amherst. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

And now it’s on to Trinity, which held off No. 3 Plymouth 29-27 thanks in part to a failed 2-point conversion. Plymouth had given Souhegan its closest game, 19-9, and the Sabers have never played Trinity except for a scrimmage here and there. The Pioneers moved up to Division II two years ago.

“You know, we just want to win by one point, we don’t care how it happens,” Bowkett said. “We don’t care if we win by 200 or 99 to 98, doesn’t matter as long as we get the win. Our guys play as hard as they can for as long as they can for each other. No matter what the score is, no matter what position they’re playing, no matter who the opponent is. They’ll go as hard as they can for each other…That’s the mindset that they have.

“They look to go 1-0 every week. We’ve got to go 1-0 one more week. We’re going to have a great week of practice, it’s going to be awesome.”